


Coming Home

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Adoption, F/M, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-01-16 12:17:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12342567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)





	1. Chapter 1

“Aaron, I can’t do this! How am I supposed to let her go?”

As the young Aaron Hotchner looked down at this little girl that they’d created, just at the wrong time, a tear trickled down his cheek. “We can’t give her what she needs right now, Haley. Keeping her would be…selfish.”

A choking gasp escaped her, causing the sleeping infant to stir. “I know,” she breathed. “It’s not fair. What if she thinks we didn’t love her? What if this couple ends up being horrible parents? What if-?” Aaron watched helplessly as Haley broke down in tears. They’d done everything right; they’d practiced safe sex every single time, and yet this little girl still happened, and now they had to say goodbye, for her sake more than theirs. 

“We’ve looked into the Fosters every which way they can. They want her. They want to love her. They have the money to give her everything we can’t.” He was trying to console her, and it looked like it was working, but inside, every word he spoke broke down his resolve, especially because she was sleeping so peacefully in his arms. 

Haley reached out, desperate to clutch the sleepy bundle for just a few more moments before she left her sight for good. “It’s a closed adoption…we’re…we’re never gonna see her again.” 

“The Fosters said they would tell her when she gets older and allow her to make her own decision.” Aaron prayed her beautiful eyes, the ones that she’d inherited from her mother, would grace his life at another point in time. 

They were young - too young to give their daughter everything she deserved, but in his 16 years of life, he’d never felt this kind of love. Hopefully one day, he’d be able to tell her in person just how heart-wrenching this decision had been. Hopefully, she’d know how much she was loved.

“Welcome to the BAU, Agent Foster,” Chief Strauss said as she extended her hand toward the young woman. 

Agent Y/N Foster had worked for years to get here - for two reasons. One, ever since she was a little girl, she’d been the protector. There was nothing she wanted more than to stick up for the people who couldn’t do so for themselves. The second reason? Well that was a bit more complicated. After learning at the age of 16 that she was adopted, she’d sought out every avenue at her disposal to find out who her biological parents were. Four years later, she found them. Now it was three years after the fact and she was here, plucked straight from the Academy to be a part of her father’s team. Every time she’d come in for an interview, he hadn’t been there; she was interviewed by Chief Strauss, David Rossi and another senior agent, Emily Prentiss, but she had yet to meet him.

Would he recognize her?

It’s been 23 years, she thought to herself. Why would he? 

Did he even want to see her? She had been given up after all. Maybe he didn’t want to see her. 

As Chief Strauss led her to her boss’s (and more importantly, father’s) office, she felt the bile rise in her throat. Through all her research, she found that she looked very much like her biological mother with just a slight mix of her father. 

The knocking on the door seemed to take place in slow motion and then she heard him - in person. Y/N had found videos and heard him before, but she’d never heard him in person before and nearly broke down right there. As the door opened, she swallowed her emotions and followed Chief Strauss. “Agent Hotchner, this is your new team member, Agent Y/N Foster.”

“Hello Agent Foster,” he greeted without taking his eyes off his paper. “I’ll be with you in one moment.”

Chief Strauss smiled. Apparently, her father was typically knee-deep in paperwork. “I’ll leave you to get to know your new agent considering you weren’t able to meet before.”

Seconds after Chief Strauss left the room, Agent Hotchner lifted his head from the desk. His face fell as their eyes met. “Agent Foster,” he greeted again, as he stood up. “I-It’s nice to meet y-you.”

Did he know?

This was not the calm, cool and collected man she’d been exposed to in videos. 

“It’s nice to meet you too,” she breathed. She wanted to hug him; she wanted to walk right into his arms. More than anything, she wanted to ask why she’d been given away, but all she could do was cry. 

A tear escaped her eye and fell to the floor before she could catch it. “Sorry. It’s a big day for me.”

“Me too,” he said. “At least, I think it is.”

“Why?” She asked. She wanted to give him the opportunity to bring it up; if he didn’t, she’d find out another way to go about telling him of their connection.

As he sat down, he pulled his jacket tighter, his eyes never leaving hers. “I-I-I…I’m sorry. I’m normally not the type of person to ask invasive questions and please feel free not to answer if you’re uncomfortable, but your eyes…they remind me of someone else’s…were you adopted?”

“Yes, sir.”

“When were you born?”

“I was born in Manassas, Virgina on Y/B.”

“Do you know who your birth parents are?”

Her lip quivered as she nodded her head. “I believe you might too. My birth mother’s name is Haley Brooks, and my father…is Aaron Hotchner.”

Tears sprung to his eyes as his beliefs were apparently confirmed. “You’re so…beautiful.” He didn’t try to hide himself as he walked toward the blinds and pulled them closed. “Can I…?”

Y/N nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Her father strode across the room and wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed. “Dad?”

“Yes.”

“Are you and mom still together?”

“Yes.”

“Do I have any half-brothers or sisters?”

“Half-brother. His name is Jack.”

She found herself hesitating at her next question. “Why…why did you give me away?”

“We were only 16…we couldn’t give you the life you deserved. We’ve…we’ve thought of you every day…wondered if you were loved…because we loved you so much.” His arms tightened around her even more. “Will you…come meet Haley? Giving you away was the hardest thing she’s ever done, and I know…”

“Yes,” she said instantly, pulling away and wiping her tears away. “Should we get to work first? Introduce me to the team?”

Looking toward her, he could see in her eyes that she was definitely his daughter. “Absolutely. Just…give me a minute.”

A slight chuckle escaped her as she took a deep breath. “Me too.”

—-

After getting thrown from the frying pan and into the fire, Y/N and Hotch returned to DC. For the last three days, he’d kept the knowledge that their daughter was back in their lives from his wife. “Are you ready?” He asked. Jack was at a friend’s house, so thankfully they’d have a little time alone before having to explain to Jack that he had a much older sister.

“No,” she replied honestly. “But as ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Haley! I’m home.”

A sweet, melodic sound emanated from somewhere deep within the house. “Did you bring our guest?”

“Yes,” he replied shakily.

When Haley rounded the corner, she dropped the glasses in her hands. “Oh my god…this can’t be…our…”

“Y/N,” she breathed. “My name is Y/N Foster.”

A flood of tears cascaded down Haley’s face as she approached. “You’re my…my baby girl.” Aaron stood by, eyes welling again as Haley wrapped her arms around their daughter. “You’re so beautiful.”

For nearly 20 minutes, the three of them stood in the middle of the living room, arms wrapped around each other and sobbing. “Can I ask you some questions?” Y/N asked.

“Of course,” Haley said, her hand grasping tightly to her daughter’s, afraid to let go ever again.

While they all sat down on the couch in the living room, Haley smiled at Y/N; she looked so much like her. “I asked…Dad, already, but why did you give me up? Was it hard?”

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she cried, her body shaking. “I wanted to keep you, but we were so young, and keeping you would’ve been selfish. Watching the Fosters take you away was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced…did you have a happy childhood? Were they good to you?”

Y/N smiled. Her mom and dad loved her to the moon and back. “Yes, I love them. They’re amazing parents. And I wanted for nothing.” She lifted her mother’s hands to her mouth and planted a kiss on them. “I wondered for a while whether you didn’t love me and that’s why you gave me up, but I can see that’s not the case, so…thank you.”

Haley grabbed her daughter’s face and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I’ve been so worried. Every day. D-Do you t-think that we could get to know you?”

“Please,” she said eagerly. “I know my mom and dad would like to see you again too.”

A mixture of laughs and cries emanated throughout the small house as the three continued to get to know each other. “Will you stay for dinner?”

“I’d love to,” she replied.

After 23 years, she’d found herself. There’d always been a piece of her missing, but no longer. Now she knew the truth. She’d had four loving parents. Two who’d taken her in despite the fact that she wasn’t their own, and two that had given her away with the hope she’d be given what they couldn’t provide.


	2. I'm Proud of You

Everything had happened so quickly. Getting the job, finding out her boss was also her father. Meeting him. Meeting her mother again. She even had a younger brother. 

It had all happened in an instant and now she wasn’t really sure of what to say or where to go from here. Her birth mother had suggested possibly meeting her adoptive parents again but it had taken her nearly a month to arrange that. Every time she tried there was some kind of apprehension. 

For hours upon hours and days upon days, she agonized over why she couldn’t just set up the dinner. Why was that so hard? She had everything she needed. She had everything she wanted. She had everything she’d worked so hard for. It was all hers.

Then it dawned her.

That was exactly it.

She was afraid that everything she had was going to disappear with one wrong move and in her humble opinion getting everything she wanted only to lose it would hurt more than never having it to begin with.

Now they were all going to sit down to dinner, but between her own rollercoaster of emotions and the work she’d thrown herself into, she had yet to be properly introduced to her brother, Jack, so she had to tackle that first. What if he hated her? Sure, they were both biologically the children of Aaron Hotchner and Haley Brooks, but if Jack didn’t get along with her then how would that impact their relationship with her?

“You okay?” Aaron asked as Y/N walked in the door. “You look like you wanna throw up.”

Y/N chuckled under her breath, stifling the need to barf. “I kind of do, honestly.”

“Why?”

As she walked into the house, she placed her bag down on the table and gave her mother a hug. “Hi, Mom.”

Haley instinctively put the back of her hand against Y/N’s forehead. “You feeling okay?”

“A little nervous.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

Both parents wondered what could be plaguing their eldest child. “It’s just…” She started, wanting to be truthful and open, but also fearing the consequences. “I’m nervous that if Jack doesn’t like me that will impact what you both think of me.”

Aaron’s eyes softened and Haley kissed her daughter’s temple. “Jack is going to love you. We had to explain to him why you didn’t live with us and why you weren’t here before, but once he understood he said he couldn’t wait to meet you.”

That took a little bit of the stress off, but it came flooding back when he came out of his room. “Hi Y/N! Mom and Dad say you’re my sister.”

“Yea, I am.”

“Cool,” he said casually. “You want to come play Mario Kart with me?”

Y/N released a long-held breath. “I’d love that. Ready to see a master at work? Because I’m kind of a Mario Kart master.”

“Bring it!” Jack screamed before running back into his room with Y/N following closely behind.

At least that bullet had been dodged.

Her fears about not being liked by her brother were unfounded. But she did learn that she was no longer the king of Mario Kart. 

Just when it seemed like things were steadying out and she could ease into this new life, something else made its way to the surface and punched her in the throat. 

Instead of worrying about her relationship with her little brother, she had to worry about being treated like her father’s daughter at work and not an actual employee. Y/N had worked her ass off to get where she was and although Aaron’s instinct as a father was to protect her, she needed to be allowed to do her job. He was keeping her from going places and doing things that any other agent would be allowed to do - and as much as she wanted a peaceful and prosperous relationship with her birth parents, she also couldn’t allow herself to get treated any differently than the rest of the team.

“Come in,” Aaron said as she knocked on the door. “Oh, Y/N. Hi.” He immediately set his pen down on the desk, his eyes softening as she approached him and sat down. “Something wrong?”

She combed her hands back through her hair and sighed, leaning back into the chair and assuming a more professional position. “Okay, I know you’re my father and you mean well, but I’ve noticed that since I took this job, you’ve been keeping me from entering dangerous situations on the job.”

“Yea…?”

Did he not get it or he didn’t want to get it? No, he was a profiler; he understood. “Agent Hotchner,” she started again. That took him off guard. “I realize that you’re my father and you want to protect me, but…this is the job. I’ve worked for this. I’ve worked really hard to be here. And you’re treating me differently than everyone else on the team. Everyone notices. I need to be allowed to work these cases the same way that everyone else does.”

Aaron sat down, slumping into his seat. “I…I just…we can’t lose you again.”

“You have me,” she replied. “I’m here, but there needs to be a balance between our relationship and this job. Please.”

He nodded almost imperceptibly, saying nothing and letting this uncomfortable silence hand in the air. “It’s really hard for me.”

“What?”

“Having you here,” he replied, meeting her gaze. “On the one hand I’m so proud of you for getting where you are and doing what you do and being who you are, but this is also never what I wanted for my own child - to see what we see every day. That’s not what a I wanted for you.”

She understood. Though she didn’t have kids, she could understand what it felt like to want a different life for someone you loved. “But it’s what I wanted for myself, dad. You have to respect that. Mom too. Because I know she’s been telling you to keep me safe.”

“Can you blame her?”

No, honestly. She couldn’t. Shaking her head, she dismantled her professional look and relaxed a little. “I can’t. But please.”

“I’ll try. I may stumble though,” Aaron replied. 

Y/N chuckled softly as she stood up. “I know. And that’s okay. I just needed to address it.”

“You did it very professionally.” Aaron smiled, watching as his daughter turned around to leave. “And Y/N?”

“Yea?”

“I’m proud of you.”


	3. What We Couldn't

Balancing between being a boss and being a father was probably the hardest thing Aaron Hotchner had ever done - and for the first time in her entire life, Haley almost wished she was on the team so she could keep watch over her little girl. 

Haley had been through hell giving Y/N up. Haley and Hotch had been through hell together. Hotch had gone up against serial killers and pedophiles and psychopaths alike - each more sickening than the last. But nothing could possibly have prepared him for those moments when Y/N did as he had done - talking down the depraved with a gun trained on her. Every single fiber in his body would ache to step between her and a possible bullet, but as he’d come to realize, she was right, he needed to let her be her own woman; she’d made them both so proud.

After a few months of ironing out the kinks - letting her be her own agent while still being a father - Y/N asked them both if they, along with Jack, wanted to have dinner with her parents, Charles and Bridget. 

Having Y/N back in their lives was both a blessing and unbelievably hard. They wanted to meet Charles and Bridget. After all, they’d looked into them to make sure Y/N would be safe, but meeting them again…

“I’m so scared to meet them,” Haley whispered as the two of them got dressed in their bedroom. Jack was already ready and Y/N was with him downstairs getting her ass kicked at Mario Kart again. 

He was too. Petrified really. It was probably a stupid reason to be nervous, but he also couldn’t shake it. “I know. I am too. Having Y/N back in our lives…it’s like I feel like we’re her parents again, and meeting her…parents (because that’s what they were, parents were so much more than just genetics). It makes me wonder if meeting them would break the illusion of us being her parents. You know?”

When he voiced it out loud it sounded even dumber. Reid could probably tell him the psychological reasons why he was feeling this way, but at least he wasn’t alone. “Yes, exactly,” Haley replied. “I have no ill will against her parents, but…I’m just afraid there isn’t enough room in her heart to love us all that way. I know it’s dumb, but…I’m afraid.”

“Me too,” he replied softly, resting his head against hers. “But we’ve already promised. We can do this.”

Hand-in-hand they slipped down the stairs and headed out the door. Heartbeats were racing faster than the car down the highway, but they had both their kids with them. It was going to be okay.

—–

“Are you ready?” Y/N asked.

She could see the fear on her parents’ faces. It’s not like she could really blame them. They were meeting her other parents. She was lucky enough to have four of them, but she could understand how it might feel a little weird for them to be meeting her other parents. “I promise they’re going to love you.”

They shook their heads slightly, as if that wasn’t the issue. Then she got it. “Are you…are you afraid you’re not my parents because they raised me?”

The recognition in her father’s eyes almost made her sob. “I have plenty of love for all of you. I promise.”

Before they knew it, Jack was already at the door, knocking furiously. Two people with brown hair tinged gray by age opened the door with smiles on their faces. “You must be Jack,” Bridget said. When she looked up, she saw Y/N. “Honey. Hi, sweetheart.” 

As she enveloped her daughter, Haley and Hotch looked on with soft smiles until Charles walked through the doorway, passed his daughter, and toward them. “Aaron…Haley…it’s so nice to see you again.”

Aaron got swept into a hug and then Haley too. “Thank you for giving her what we couldn’t,” Haley whispered, a tear falling from the corner of her eye. “I can’t begin to tell you how grateful we are.”

With Y/N and Jack heading into the house, Bridget made her way over, hearing the tail end of the conversation. “Thank you for entrusting us with her. She grew up into an amazing you woman.”

“That she did,” Aaron replied. “All thanks to you.”

For a few moments, they stood there in silence, understanding flowing between them until a rumble for Charles’ stomach interrupted them. “Now I’m starving. How about some dinner?”

—–

“These mashed potatoes are amazing!” Jack screamed, a piece falling out of his mouth. Y/N couldn’t help but laugh when her mother cried out.

“Jack! Mouth closed! You know better!” Haley cried.

Jack was shamed into shutting his mouth. “Sorry,” he mumbled with a smirk.

Charles and Bridget had really outdone themselves. Actually Charles had. “I burn water,” Bridget laughed.

“It’s true,” Y/N replied. “Remember that time you burned one of my TV dinners?”

Bridget cried out. “My finger slipped on the zero! Shut up!”

Y/N snorted and nearly lost her own food, which caused Jack to choke on his water some of which came out of his nose. “It was priceless, Mom.”

“Sorry, I was never a cook.”

Haley was scolding Jack again who swore that it was Y/N’s fault. Truly, they were siblings. “Mom, it’s fine,” Y/N told her as she took a napkin from the table and wiped Jack’s shirt. “It was totally me. Actually really should blame Mom because she’s the one who burnt my TV dinner.”

Aaron and Charles started laughing as Bridget rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. “Don’t worry about it, Haley,” she said. “We’re not fancy here.”

“God, no.” Y/N shook her head. “Dad here can burp like a champion.”

“Can I hear it?” Jack yelled excitedly.

“Jack!” 

The entire table fell into a fit of laughter. “Did they really need to know that, Y/N?”

She was giggling uncontrollably. “What? I need all my parents to get to know each other!”

As they all attempted to calm down, Aaron couldn’t help but notice how easily Y/N had switched between calling both Bridget and Haley “Mom.” Their fears were unfounded. Their daughter was full of love - because of the four of them put together. There was definitely enough love to go around.


End file.
